


The Vow

by michele659



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Male Slash, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-27
Updated: 2013-02-27
Packaged: 2017-12-03 20:20:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/702253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/michele659/pseuds/michele659
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Originally written for Adventfic Challenge on lj.<br/>Set in Season 1.</p><p>From the prompt by jo1990  Danny’s back in New Jersey, helping wrap up an old case. He's badly hurt and left for dead in the snow. As he lies in the snow, he thinks about his life in Hawaii and finally he puts the clues together and works out that Steve is in love with him. He makes a promise that if he gets out of this one alive he'll take a chance on a relationship with his partner by telling him he loves him, too.He may even enjoy the beach.</p><p>Thanks for the prompt!</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Vow

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Hawaii 5-0.

****

Of all the places Danny Williams thought he’d find himself on Christmas Eve, he would never have guessed it would be lying in the snow with a bullet in him in Jersey.

He’d come home to New Jersey for the holidays, trying to forget that he wasn’t going to be with his daughter this year. Rachel and StepStan were on a trip to Disneyworld of all places, and Rachel had insisted they HAD to go over the Christmas holiday since “Stanley” wouldn’t have any time off until the spring.

Danny had protested, but Rachel had told Grace about it before Danny could even make a counter offer.

Grace was so happy that Danny didn’t have the heart to make an issue of it.

He changed the ringtone for Rachel to “Cold as Ice” and was quiet for days before deciding to leave and go see his family.

Danny figured he could lose himself in his raucous, rambunctious family. Both of his parents were excellent cooks, so he thought he could get all the good Italian food he could ingest in the week he’d be there and maybe that would compensate for the next several months when he’d have to endure pizza with(he shuddered)-pineapple.

His brothers and sister would all be at his parents’ home, and the noise alone was guaranteed to shut out the other noises in his head that had to do with how fucked up his life was.

When he told the team they’d all been supportive and happy for him.

Well, all of them except Steve.

Steve had been supportive, but he also seemed hurt for some reason. He’d muttered something about feeling cheated that he didn’t get a chance to show Danny a real Island Christmas and sullenly went to his desk and just stared, absently trying to throw candy canes into a trash can.

Danny smiled, noting that Steve had as much luck with getting the candy canes into the trash can as he had getting the basketball in the hoop the day they’d had the game in the prison yard(with the convict who’d asked,“How long you two been married?”).

“Hey, Scrooge, what’s up?” he’d asked Steve when this bizarre behavior continued into the next day.

“Nothing. I just get a little melancholy around Christmas.”

“Melancholy?” Danny asked, “Really?”

“Yes Danny, melancholy. Listen, any man who uses the word “ergo” in a sentence is in no position to criticize another person’s word choice. Besides, my word choice is not the point. As you like to say, ‘semantics’,” Steve said.

“Ok, I’m sorry!” Danny held up his hands in surrender. “You were saying you were melancholy.” Danny paused for a moment and then put his hands on Steve’s shoulders. “Oh man, I’m sorry. I was so busy thinking about me not having Grace I didn’t think. This is going to be your first Christmas since your Dad died.”

Steve nodded and then said, “I had thought you- maybe you and me-we-the team could be together, try and celebrate-I, didn’t want to be alone.”

“I’m sorry,” Danny repeated. “Well, at least you have the rest of the team to celebrate with, and we can have our office party before I go. I’ll be dressed as Santa (for Grace, wipe that smirk off your face) and we can give each other gifts, and then when her mother picks her up we can get a little drunk, ok?”

Steve smiled a little at that, but Danny still saw pain in his eyes that he couldn’t quite identify.

The party had been a success, Grace loving that her “Danno” was Santa and she could tell him personally every single thing she wanted and the team had exchanged their gifts and gotten a little tipsy once Grace had gone.

It was a fun night, but when Danny went to say goodbye to Steve before getting a cab to the airport Steve had gone back to looking sullen.

“What’s with the face?” Danny asked.

“No face. I DO NOT HAVE A FACE. STOP SAYING I HAVE A FACE,” Steve yelled.

“Ok, STOP SPEAKING TO ME IN CAPSLOCK,” Danny laughed. “What’s wrong, man?”

“Nothing. Look, cancel your cab. I’ll drive you to the airport.”

“I don’t want to put you out-“

“Stop,” Steve said, “What else am I going to do tonight?” and he sighed, very dramatically, Danny thought but didn’t say.

“Ok, let’s go, McGarrett,” Danny grinned and the two of them walked to Steve’s car.

***

They’d done their typical bickering about Steve’s driving on the way to the airport, but it lacked it’s usual lightheartedness. Danny kept getting the feeling Steve wanted to say something to him but didn’t.

They sat in uneasy silence while they waited for Danny’s plane to be called until Danny finally said, “Ok, what gives? You and me,” he gestured the two of them with his hands,” we can always talk. We might be yelling, but we can always talk. Now I feel that you’re holding out on me. So, what’s going on? Are you mad at me or something?”

Steve looked shocked. “No, I’m not mad at you. God, you know you are so oblivious sometimes!”

“What? What am I oblivious about?” Danny asked, feeling very confused.

“You really don’t get that the reason I’m upset is that you’re leaving? And it doesn’t have anything to do with my Dad. It has to do with ME-wanting to spend the holidays-with YOU.”

“Well, that’s very nice, Steve, but-“

“No, no! You are STILL not getting it- God; you have me talking like you now! I don’t want you to leave. I want to be with you on Christmas, and I want to be with you on New Year’s Eve. Not just to show you a classic Island holiday, either.”

Danny continued to look puzzled. “So-what then?”

“I wish I were near a wall, so I could bang my head against it right now!” Steve exclaimed. “I want you to be with me because I- want- I – want us- want us to-“ Steve started to stammer and blush furiously until the light finally dawned on Danny.

“Oh! Oh, shit Steve I didn’t know! I didn’t realize, I’m sorry-“

Steve was shaking his head. “No, no, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. It was ridiculous to think that you – although there have been times I thought I saw something in you- in your eyes- oh fuck, did I say that? Forget it-Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Danno.”

“Steve calm down will you? I don’t think you’re ridiculous, I’ve just never thought of us-“

“I know,” said Steve. “Please don’t finish the sentence. You just never thought of us as anything but friends. I get it. Let’s just forget it and chalk it up to me being ‘melancholy’.”

“Steve-“

“No, it’s alright. Oh look, they’re boarding your flight. Have a good one, Danny. I’ll talk to you when you get back,” and with that Steve stood up so quickly that Danny didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye to his face.

“Steve, Merry Christmas,” he said softly as Steve disappeared into the crowd.

****

Danny didn’t know what to think. Steve was attracted to him? What was going on, and what had he meant when he said he thought he saw something in Danny’s eyes?

He had a drink on the plane and tried to put the whole thing out of his mind. He couldn’t handle it right now.

When Danny’s plane touched down in Newark he was immediately mobbed by his family, and he had no time to think of Steve at all.

***

It wasn’t until hours later, when he was having his fourth cup of fresh, Italian roast coffee and had said goodnight to the last of his family members that he allowed himself to think about Steve.

He’d been attracted to men before, but never enough to actually do anything about it, and he never thought he would act on those feelings.

He’d certainly never felt anything resembling love for another man before.

He couldn’t deny that there was something between him and Steve. The heat and electricity between the two of them had been there since the beginning, even as they were holding guns on each other.

There was a spark between them, and every time they occupied the same air space it practically crackled.

But to call it sexual tension was too strong a definition-wasn’t it?

As far as love was concerned, well-he cared about Steve, he worried about Steve’s recklessness (even when he wasn’t with him, so he knew it wasn’t just worry for his own safety that made him care) but you’d feel that way about a friend. It didn’t have to mean anything else.

He looked forward to the time he spent with Steve more than he did with anyone else, but that was what friendship was about, wasn’t it?

Danny shook his head and took his cup to the sink and washed it.

He decided to shelve this topic for now.

He was just going to relax and enjoy his holiday.

***

Of course, that hadn’t exactly worked out as planned.

A case he had been working on while still living in Jersey got a sudden lead and Danny knew he’d have to be involved when it all went down and the case was solved.

He’d spent too many nights pacing the floors of his house agonizing over it.

So it was Christmas Eve. His parents would understand. They remembered how horrendous this case had been for him.

With any luck they’d have it all wrapped up and he’d be home in time for dinner.

****

“Luck, “ Danny thought as he tried to still the bleeding on his side with his hand, “never really my strong suit.”

The case was not the slam dunk they thought it’d be.

Someone tipped the guys off, and when Danny and the other officers came bursting into the warehouse they were ready for them.

Danny had chased one guy through the warehouse down to one of the deserted piers, slipping and cursing as he made his way through slush and the newly falling snow.

He had just stopped himself from falling when he felt the shot.

“Jesus, Fuck!” Danny screamed in agony as he went down. He shot his gun as he was falling but doubted he hit the guy.

Now here he was, lying in the snow.

Bleeding, alone and freezing.

He tried to crawl around and look for his hand radio or his cell phone, but he couldn’t find either of them.

This was it, he thought.

Time to die.

Strangely, the thought didn’t frighten him as much as fill him with immense sadness.

Sadness that he’d never hug his daughter again, or hear her sweet voice calling him “Danno”.

Sadness that he’d never see her grow up, graduate from college, get married.

“Danno loves you, my little monkey” he whispered to the wind, hoping somehow Grace would hear it.

He thought of his family, his mother and father trying to bear the unfathomable pain of burying a child.

He knew his parents would be proud of him, but it wouldn’t make the pain any easier.

He thought of his brothers and sister and scenes from his childhood passed in front of him, mostly having to do with holidays spent together and pranks they’d pulled on each other.

God, he loved them all so much.

Danny turned his thoughts to his “adopted” family. The 5-O team that had taken him in and made him feel not only less homesick, but as though he actually had a home.

Most notably, Steve McGarrett.

“You’re not as alone as you think you are on this island.”

Steve getting the Governor to tell Stan he could have the permits he wanted if Rachel dropped the custody battle.

“I got you and Gracie a suite”, Steve telling him that he’d gotten Danny a luxury hotel suite so that he could visit with his daughter in a place that didn’t have boxes all around and generally looked like a dump.

“I like pancakes.” Steve trying to stop Danny from flirting with the waitress by interjecting in the conversation and flirting with Danny himself.

Steve’s comment when Danny said, “How come I look like a waiter and you look like James Bond?”

“Don’t listen to that guy. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

The appreciative looks he’d given Danny that night-which Danny had not picked up on at the time.

“That no tie look, it looks good on you.” Steve admiring him while they’re on the way to a crime scene with a suspect between them.

“When I say “book’em Danno,” it’s a term of endearment.” Danny had complained about Steve using that expression until Steve said that.

From that moment on he actually looked forward to hearing it.

“I wish you were here,” Steve had said in response to Danny’s “You miss me, don’t you?” Steve had him so worried that day that he’d driven to the destroyer as crazily as Steve ever had, wanting to charge the ship and throw the guy who was holding Steve hostage,( who had him on his fucking knees) overboard.

The look in Steve’s eyes when he got off the ship.

Danny’s mind had been so relieved it hadn’t even registered the look for what it was.

Love.

Steve’s answer when Danny had said Steve didn’t have to come to his ex-partner’s memorial service. Danny had said, “You didn’t have to come. I know you didn’t know him.”

Steve had replied, “I know you.”

It was only now, as the snow froze his fingers even as he tried to wipe it (and what he suspected were also tears)off his face that he realized what Steve was saying, what the look in his eyes meant.

Love.

As he thought about all these things, he realized that on some level he’d known all along what Steve was doing and what it meant.

Danny had been too afraid to acknowledge it because then he’d have to think about how HE felt about Steve.

Steve loved him.

And he- he loved Steve.

Now it was too late.

“If I ever get out of here, I promise I’ll tell you that I love you, you crazy, crazy man,” Danny vowed as he felt himself lose consciousness. “Hell, I’ll even go swimming with you, lay on the sand, learn to surf…”

****

“Stupid, stupid, stupid! I never want to hear that I’m reckless again, do you hear me Danno?”

Danny groaned.

“Steve? Steve, is that you? What are you doing here? Where the hell am I?’

“Danny, Danny- you’re awake! Oh, thank God,” Steve exclaimed, and gave Danny a big hug.

“Ow, careful, please! I’m-awake? What the-where am I and why are you here? Why am I so uncomfortable?”

“You were shot! You ran off after a guy with NO BACK UP and you got shot!”

“Oh shit, yeah,” it started coming back to Danny. The run through the icy snow, being off balance and getting shot.

The feeling of bleeding and freezing to death simultaneously.

“What happened? The last thing I remember is bleeding and freezing, and then I lost consciousness. Who found me, and why are you here?”

“One of your team found you and your family called me.” Steve smiled at him, though his eyes still had the haunted look of someone who hadn’t slept in days. “It seems like you talked about me quite a bit to your family, so they thought I should know what was going on.” Steve paused for a moment and he closed his eyes. “For a little while we were afraid you weren’t going to make it. You’d lost a lot of blood and had a pretty severe case of frostbite. You almost-“ Steve’s voice started breaking a little, and Danny had a pretty good idea what his next words were going to be. “You almost died on the operating table.” He softly, almost tentatively caressed Danny’s face. “Even after, we –we were afraid you weren’t going to come out of it.”

Danny smiled, barely resisting the urge to lean into Steve’s caress. “And your way of talking me out of the coma was to yell at me?”

Steve smiled back. “Oh, you were out of the coma. You were just sleeping a lot. You’d wake up and fall back to sleep, but I could swear you saw me.”

“Yeah, I did, “ Danny said, softly. He’d thought it was part of his dream, or his post death experience. He didn’t know what he actually thought as that moment.

But he remembered Steve’s face.

Steve’s worried, frightened, grief stricken face suddenly smiling.

A look of relief on his face.

And there it was again.

That look.

The one Danny finally acknowledged was love.

He suddenly remembered his realization about Steve being in love with him.

Even more importantly he remembered realizing he was in love with Steve, and that he’d vowed to tell him.

“Steve,” he cleared his throat, “before I left you said some things-“

Steve looked panicked. “Oh no, don’t worry about that now, Danno. Just rest, and enjoy your victory. You got the bad guys-all of them. Even the one who shot you. You got him, too.”

Danny thought about it for a moment.

He was elated, of course. This was an important case, and this arrest was going to put a lot of “bad guys” off the street for good.

And he did get a certain satisfaction from knowing that he was able to stop the guy who shot him, even as he himself was going down.

But, it wasn’t the most important thing on his mind right now.

“Steve, that’s not the most important thing on my mind right now.”

“It should be! You and your team are going to be recognized by the Mayor the day after New Year’s. She’s coming here to the hospital to see you!”

“New Year’s? What day is this?”

“It’s December 31st, “Steve told him.

“Oh, good, then I didn’t miss it.”

“Miss what? Grace isn’t here, Danny. Your parents didn’t want to tell her unless they had to.”

“Oh thank God. I wouldn’t have wanted to worry her. No, I just meant that I didn’t miss New Year’s Eve.”

“What, do you think you’re going out partying in your condition?” Steve smiled at him and gently touched his hand.

“No, but I can share it with the ones I love,” Danny said.

“Oh yeah, your family. They didn’t hear me when I said you were awake. Let me go get them. Although I don’t know if they can all celebrate with you at midnight. You still have a lot of recovering to do Mr. Williams.”

“Mr. Williams?” Danny laughed. “I don’t think you’ve ever called me that.”

Steve shrugged. “I’m trying to be firm. How am I doing?”

Danny laughed again.

“Ok, not so good then. Let me get your family”-Steve began to pull away but Danny tugged on his hand.

“No, not yet.”

Steve looked at him somewhat apprehensively.

“What?”

“I think you should hear me out-“

“No, no, listen just forget all that stuff, will you? You’re a good friend and I’m an idiot and –“

“For fuck’s sake, STEVE, would you please let me finish?”

Steve sat down.

“Jeez, thank you. Anyway, what I wanted to say was that I figured out what you were trying to tell me, and I vowed-“

“You vowed?”

“Would you shut up? Yes, I vowed as I was lying in the snow bleeding and freezing, that if I survived I would tell you that –“ he paused and exhaled.

Suddenly this didn’t seem like such a good idea.

“Tell me what?”

Damn, too late to back out now.

Danny looked into Steve’s eyes and saw so much love in them that he realized he didn’t really want to back out.

“I love you, too.”

Steve stared at him, open mouthed and for a moment Danny was afraid he’d read Steve’s signals wrong.

What if Steve was attracted to Danny but wasn’t in love with him?

What if Danny had just allowed himself to be incredibly vulnerable and Steve felt nothing remotely resembling love?

WHAT THE FUCK HAD HE JUST DONE? HE WAS A FOOL, A-

“I love you, too,” Steve said, almost whispering it.

Or maybe he’d said it normally and it just sounded like a whisper because of all the yelling going on in Danny’s head.

Danny decided it didn’t matter as long as Steve had said it.

And he had.

“I think-um, I mean, I don’t have experience with other guys, but usually when I tell a woman I love her and she tells me she love me, we, I don’t know, kiss or something,” Danny muttered in the general direction of the floor.

He looked up to find that smile Steve reserved only for Danny on his face.

“A kiss is definitely in order,” Steve gently lifted Danny off the pillow and held him softly, his lips hovering over Danny’s. They looked at each other for a moment, knowing that this was going to change their relationship forever, and then Steve was kissing Danny hungrily, almost desperately.

Danny returned the kiss with the same passion.

“I think, though,” Steve said in between kisses, “that the ‘or something’ part of your sentence may have to wait for a little while.”

“It’s ok,” Danny smiled and kissed Steve again, “we have time.”

The End


End file.
